Johnson & Johnson will pay $75 million to settle a consumer protection lawsuit filed by Mississippi over the company’s talc-based baby powder, according to people familiar with the matter, resolving litigation in which the state had sought as much as $6 billion.
The pact comes as lawyers for the state and J&J were gearing up for a non-jury trial next month in Jackson, Mississippi, said the people, who asked not to be named because the accord isn’t yet public. Mississippi was one of only two states to file suit over J&J’s marketing of its baby powder.
The state sued over J&J’s failure to warn consumers about the powder’s alleged cancer risks over nearly a 50-year period. The settlement comes as the world’s largest maker of health care products seeks to manage a growing number of suits by consumers accusing it of concealing the product’s risks, after two unsuccessful attempts to use the bankruptcy courts to impose a settlement on former users.
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